Me and Blur.

The first Blur song I ever heard was "Girls and boys". The first album I bought was "The Great Escape". I've been a fan since early 1996.

My favourite member is Alex, followed by Graham, although they're all pretty sweet!

My favourite albums are "Modern Life is Rubbish" and "13", followed by "Parklife", then "Blur", then "Leisure", "The Great Escape", "The Special Collectors Edition" and my least favourite is "Live at the Budokan".

I have finally seen them live (at Denmark's Roskilde festival, 4th July 1999) and they were great! See here for review!

I am a huge fan, and spend a lot of time on Blur, but I try not to spend too much money. So far I have spent a total of around £250. I guess it could be worse... The Blur singles box just doubled the figure... ;) My friends and family have been very generous too... I have been a fan club member for about two years, and I certainly think it is worth joining! Go here!

My favourite b-sides are All your life, Swallows in the heatwave, I know and I'm fine. My favourite songs are: This is a low, For Tomorrow, Beetlebum, Caramel, The Universal, Trimm Trabb, Miss America, Sing, All your life, Popscene, Chemical World and Colin Zeal.

Here are some of my favourite Blur lyrics:

...and I might as well just grin and bear it, 'cos it's not worth the trouble of an argument...

"Badhead" (Parklife 1994)

I don't need anyone
But a little love would make things better...

"Bang" (Leisure 1991)

Now she's eating chocolate to induce sleep
And in a chemical world it's very very very cheap
I don't know about you, but they're putting the holes in
Until you can see right through...

"Chemical world" (Modern Life is Rubbish 1993)

...all you have to do
just be you...

"Slow down" (Leisure)

...what's the worth of all of this...

"Sing" (Leisure)

Only you can fill my blank heart...

"Resigned" (Modern Life is Rubbish)

Here is here and I am here
Where are you?
Far away, far away
She no jellybean she a Jemima hoho
Wish away, wish away
I don't mind
I don't mind at all
I love only you

"Miss America" (Modern Life is Rubbish)

I don't really want to change a thing
I want to stay this way forever

You know it's to be with you...

"Blue jeans" (Modern Life is Rubbish)

bang goes another year
in and out of one ear

"Bang" (Leisure)

Do you do anything you ever do?
No, she said.
Do you want anything you ever wanted?
No, she said.
She don't know how
How to feel
This is a bad day
Do you have anything you ever had?
No, she said.
Do you love anyone you ever loved?
Yes, she said
This is a bad day to know...

"Bad day" (Leisure)

i'd love to see the universe
wake me by the universe

"Essex dogs" (Blur 1997)

So sure, so sure you are
Nothing can touch you now
I need to know
Did you think of me?
But you're forgetting me now
Slow down
Do't be so eager to let me go
Realise it could change you
It could change your mind
Try, try, try
All things remain the same
So why try again?

"Repitition" (Leisure)

I get up when I want
Except on Wednesday
When I get rudely awakened by the dustmen
I put my trousers on
Have a cup of tea
And I think about leaving the house
I feed the pigeons
I sometimes feed the sparrows too
It gives me a sense of enormous well-being
And then I'm happy for the rest of the day
Safe in the knowledge there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it
All the people
So many people
And they all go hand in hand
Hand in hand through their
PARKLIFE

"Parklife" (Parklife)

All lyrics are by Albarn or Albarn/Coxon/James/Rowntree, published by EMI Music on Food Records (part of Parlophone)1991-1997.

Live review - Blur, Roskilde festival, Denmark, orange stage 990704 19.00

So, FINALLY I've seen Blur live, it's been a long wait but on the whole worth it. I still can't quite believe they've actually been there right in front of me, playing their songs... It's like I haven't really realised that they are actually real live people before... ;)

Set list: Tender
Bugman
Coffee and TV
1992
B.L.U.R.E.M.I.
Battle
Trimm Trabb
No distance left to run

---Encore---

Beetlebum
Country Sad Ballad Man
This is a low
There's no other way
Popscene
Girls and boys
Song 2

Pretty good set list I thought! I was so pleased when they skipped Swamp song, it's the one song on 13 I don't like. I knew they weren't going to do Caramel (shame though, it's the best one on the album) but I did miss Trailerpark, especially having heard people say how much better it is live. Country Sad, TIAL, Popscene and G&B all came as a surprise, and they were all great too! Country is so much better live, it's not a good track on the album but it was great when they played it.

I was pretty close to the front and was surprised at how uncrowded it was - right in front of Damon it looked a bit cramped but I wanted to be on Alex's side which was easy... ;) Also the audience were so boring! As far as I could tell I was the only one who recognised most of the new songs - I tried to shriek approvingly when they announced the good ones - but the rest of the crowd were very blasé. Damon had to tell them to "move your f**king a**es" for G&B, which they did, luckily.

The band all seemed very relaxed, grinning at each other and stuff. Dave was very energetic and looked to be enjoying himself. Alex looked very blasé, but he did give us a grin just before sauntering off to get his bass for Beetlebum. Graham and Damon were obviously putting their heart and soul inte the new material, especially Battle, where Damon got out his little keyboard thing (what are they called? The ones you blow into?). Alex only smoked one or two cigarettes, and so did Damon.

Damon was talking to us quite a lot, he started the show by pointing out that according to Nostradamus we only had another 5 hours to live... He gave us a story about his Trimm Trabbs which he supposedly bought many years ago. Apparently they were very expensive and he was very proud of them, but the soles fell out after he'd worn them once... A very sad story...;) He also said he still had them. However, Graham gave him a look and they grinned at each other afterwards so who knows... Damon did a bit of crowd surfing, he stayed a few metres away from me though... He also said he was "too old" fo go to festivals now, which provoked much grinning from the band. ;) He got a bit muddled with the words to Country but noone seemed to notice. Graham was right into his guitar playing and fell over a few times.